


Fix-It-Man

by Valentine



Series: Canon Compliant Avengers Endgame Fics [1]
Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, F/M, He fixes things, Not A Fix-It, Tony does what he does best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 14:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18662536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine/pseuds/Valentine
Summary: Tony Stark can accomplish a lot in five years.  After the Snap and before the Reversal, Tony Stark does what he does best: he fixes things.





	Fix-It-Man

Those who’d fought in Wakanda call it the Snap, most of the world refers to it as the Decimation. Tony calls it his Failure but not aloud —not after the tongue lashing he got from Pepper the one and only time he said it in front of her. He comes home weak and near death. He says a few choice things to Rogers, things he won’t feel sorry about later. He sneaks a pad into his room the moment he wakes up from the sedatives and starts figuring out how to ameliorate what he thinks he broke.

He marries Pepper, his rock and desperately doesn’t think about what he would have done if he’d returned and she was gone too. He starts re-constructing the Iron Legion immediately. The countries who don’t want their help are slower to refuse than the help is to come, and once they’ve seen what the Legion can do and more importantly what they won’t do, the denials are few and far between. After the initial disaster response to a nuclear melt-down in North Korea, an out of control wildfire across three states in the US, and rioting in too many locations to name they draw back. They are mainly seen during natural disasters or doing search and rescue for lost hikers and missing children. 

They world is a different place after 2018, some countries respond by snapping their borders shut as soon as they are able. Others, like Wakanda, open them wide sending the message, “We are not alone.” By some measures the world is better off, but not by the ones that matter to those left behind. 

In an Avengers Facility that Tony still foots the bill for, Natasha Romanov coordinates the heroes that remain. From a quiet lake house Tony coordinates the rebuilding of earth. He is responsible for restructuring huge swaths of American infrastructure and he doesn’t stop with the US. After the Decimation Stark Industries is busier than ever, and just because he rarely leaves the lake doesn’t mean Tony Stark disappears. He gives interviews, he invents, he fixes because that’s who he is, an engineer, a fixer of problems.

He has the child he dreamt of before the Snap and he names her Morgan. He has a child who never came home and he keeps his picture over the kitchen sink. He occasionally video chats with Banner and more infrequently with Natasha. He doesn’t speak to Rogers.

He spends hours with Morgan, hours where she has his full attention, and his brain, his ridiculous, genius brain lets him focus on this one perfect thing. He redesigns his hologram interface so he can use it one handed or with no hands at all. Now when he rocks her to sleep he can hold her while he designs. He cries, he grieves, and he is still incandescently happy every time he hears Pepper or looks at his baby girl.

But always in the back of his head there is a ticking clock. He wasn’t sure what it was counting down to or when it would end, but in the marrow of his bones, in the depths of his heart, and in the song of his soul he knew this life he’d carved out of blood and loss and fear wouldn’t last. All he could do was hope that a better one would rise from the ashes. 

He doesn’t expect to survive the re-birth. He’s known since he closed his eyes in space that his life has an early expiration date and he’s honestly surprised he’s lasted this long. All the same he fights for each and every day. He wants to see his daughter grow up into the amazing woman he knows she will be. He wants to see Pepper age, to see Happy retire, to see Rhodey telling his daughter all the embarrassing stories about their youth that she needs to be a little older to hear.

He knows the end is near when Rogers shows up in his sanctuary, Captain America his personal harbinger of doom. He says no. He says yes. There’s a problem, and it’s one he can fix so he does. The countdown in his head ends. He rests and the Universe will have to find a new fix-it-man.


End file.
